Awesome Etc

Frozen TV dinners and the microwaveable meals we can buy today have long been a convenient way to easily fix a full, hot meal. But who came up with these compartmentalized dinners, and when was the first TV dinner served? Weird History Food explores the origin story of this popular mealtime shortcut.

The airport code LAX stands for Los Angeles International, which makes sense. But why is Nashville International BNA? Or Newark International EWR? CGP Gray does his best to untangle the IATA three-letter naming conventions for airports around the globe and the further mess that the FAA made of US names.

For this highly-destructive video, How Ridiculous busted out the big guns… er, axe. Watch as they use a 2-ton axe to chop everything from a big screen TV to bowling balls to a prototype “Tesla.” If it looks familiar, that’s because they removed the head from their big-ass hammer and swapped it with that killer axe.

Just Perfect set up a fun competition in which flaming matchsticks race toward a finish line. We’re not sure if the chemicals in different color match heads affect how quickly they burn or if other variables like the patterns and wood cause the lines to burn at different rates. Can you guess which color will win?

Need help relaxing your mind? This video from the Monterey Bay Aquarium is sure to soothe any tensions. It features 12 straight hours of colorful Pacific fishes, soft corals, and anemones from the aquarium’s Splash Zone. It also brings back memories of the old After Dark screensaver.

These bargain-priced, true wireless earbuds resist water and sweat, so they’re ideal for listening to tunes while you work out. They come with a charging case to add power on the go and are designed to block out background noise. Another great deal from The Awesomer Shop.

The Process K channel shares videos of industry at work in factories around Korea. In this clip, you’ll see how thick steel bars are stretched and pulled while hot to create skinny lengths of rebar used for reinforcing concrete. Let’s face it, can you ever get enough footage of molten hot steel?

The Backyard Scientist should change his name to “The Dangerous Scientist.” This time, he made his own rockets, then devised a way to attach kitchen knives to them and launched them into various objects. Before you say anything about the wonky aerodynamics, the rockets had to be attached to a steel guide cable.

A while back, Stuff Made Here showed off an early version of his robot that could solve simple jigsaw puzzles. After refining the robot’s hardware and rewriting its puzzle-solving algorithm, he turned it loose on a 4000-piece puzzle with only white pieces. Oh, and he had to move his entire shop in the middle of the project.

To celebrate the launch of CrunchLabs, engineer Mark Rober endeavored to set up the world’s longest Hot Wheels track. At over a half-mile long, the track takes advantage of the warehouse space and has stacked switchbacks with Hot Wheels Boosters to keep the cars moving. We’d love to see the FPV footage of the full ride.

Shadow Foam previously showed us how their thick foam could be used to make a tool organizer wall. Now they’ve teamed up with inventor Colin Furze to help outfit his awesome new workshop with an foam wall for storing his massive haul of Milwaukee power tools. We love this idea for getting big tools like saws up off the shelf.

If you place a billiard ball on a spinning turntable, you’d think it would quickly slide off its edge. But as science educator Steve Mould shows us, the ball hangs on much longer than you’d expect. The physics at work here are truly fascinating, especially given how other objects leave the surface so quickly.

Here’s a great way to get Microsoft Office 2021 for your Mac without subscription fees. This deal from The Awesomer Shop includes an instant download and license key for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and OneNote – a full suite of productivity software.

For his latest experiment, rocket scientist and entertainer Mark Rober teamed up with Joe Barnard of BPS Space to launch an egg into space to see if they could catch it safely a mattress when it dropped back to earth. But the project proved far more challenging than they thought and required huge amounts of trial and error.

We’ve always been fascinated by mechanical arcade games. Old Things Never Die shows off a vintage game where players placed bets on horses racing around in circles. It required extensive restoration work to fix its mechanism and return it to its former glory. It’s wonderful to see how fast it spins now.

Make the perfect cup of espresso with this traditional kettle-style coffee maker. It works on any kind of stovetop, so you can even use it while camping. Available in 6-cup, 9-cup, and 12-cup models. This special Awesomer Shop bundle includes a battery-powered milk frother for topping off lattes and other creamy drinks.

Canadian jewelry maker Squaremade makes just a single ring design, but what makes their collection stand out is the materials selection. This minimal, unisex band comes in a dozen metals, including titanium, copper, cast iron, tungsten, and 24k gold. Buy them individually or in sets with a stainless steel display dock.

When it comes to watching our diet, counting calories is one of the most common methods of tracking food intake. AsapSCIENCE explains how the nutritional composition of foods, our individual metabolisms, genetics, and microbiomes affect how we process food, impacting our health far more than calories alone.

(PG-13: Language) This science fiction short from filmmaker James Parris starts out with a man having a mid-life meltdown, leading to an argument with his girlfriend. But as the Black Mirror-esque story advances, we learn not all is what it seems between the woman and her troubled companion. (Thanks, Rob!)

People taking photos of themselves blew up with the advent of smartphones. But the first occurrence of what we now refer to as selfies happened way before the 21st century. Michael from Vsauce digs deep to unwind the origins and evolution of self-portraits in this informative history video.

Two of our favorite bands are Daft Punk and Beastie Boys. So when Dangerous Minds turned us on to this 2014 remix album by producer Peter Chapman aka COINS, we had turn it up loud. The free-to-play album includes eight amazing remixes, kicking things off with a groovy combo of Alive and Intergalactic.

Maker Maciej Nowak is back with another awesome miniature weapon. This time, he shows how he created a tiny crossbow that’s powered by a spring and a length of skinny sailing rope. The crossbow has an aluminum body for strength and fires skinny projectiles made from wooden skewers and nails.

You’d think that a bullet train whooshing by you at 200 mph might be jarring, but this video of Japan’s Shinkansen high-speed railway zooming by in the snow is oddly soothing. YouTube channel It’s railway! shared this compilation of footage captured on snowy days at the empty Kurikoma-Kōgen Station.